BlogCarol Troxell Reader: Imani Perry and South to America
An Alabama native, Imani Perry (South to America) returns to the region of her upbringing in this book, crafting a narrative of the real people and places that make up …
BlogSowing Care and Justice
Co-editors Mai-Linh Hong and Chrissy Yee Lau and contributor Valerie Soe (The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice) discuss the work of the Auntie …
BlogAccidental Gods: Mysticism & Faith in Literary Fiction
Curdella Forbes (A Tall History of Sugar) and SJ Sindu (Blue-Skinned Gods) discuss their latest novels, exploring ideas of face value and faith, love and relationships, and the occasionally mystical …
BlogFresh Portraits of Indomitable Women
Hilary Holladay (The Power of Adrienne Rich: A Biography) and Andrew Kaufman, (The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky) investigate the true …
BlogJMRL Same Page Community Read: We Are Not Free with Traci Chee
Traci Chee (We Are Not Free) discusses her acclaimed novel for young readers, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are …
BlogWho Owns Your DNA?
Genetics legal authority Jorge Contreras (The Genome Defense) shares the behind-the-scenes strategies and battles that played out over years in the groundbreaking civil rights case, AMP v. Myriad, fighting private …
BlogModern Love: Romance Fiction
Verity Lowell (Meet Me in Madrid) and Jean Meltzer (The Matzah Ball) explore romance at the crossroads of tradition, convention, and modernity, taking readers to Madrid and a Matzah Ball …
BlogDreaming up the World: Middle-Grade Fiction
Ruth Behar (Letters from Cuba), Alda P. Dobbs (Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna), Sylvia Liu (Manatee’s Best Friend), and Lisa Yee (Maizy Chen’s Last Chance) explore themes of family, migration, …
BlogEyewitness to the Past
Writers Anneliese Bruner (great-granddaughter to the author of The Nation Must Awake), Gayle Jessup White (Reclamation), and Steve Majors (High Yella) share their histories and life stories, offering a close …
BlogSights & Sounds: Visual Poetry
Poets David Campos (American Quasar), Naoko Fujimoto (Glyph), and Aurielle Marie (Gumbo Ya Ya) employ not only the written word but also a visual vocabulary in their work. Linking text …
BlogThe Critical Role of Local Journalism
Authors and media specialists Christopher Ali (Farm Fresh Broadband) and Jennifer Lawless (News Hole) share their work and discuss the many challenges to open access to local news, including struggling …
BlogExploring Family Bonds
Authors Jan Beatty (American Bastard: A Memoir), Taylor Harris (This Boy We Made: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown), and Julietta Singh (The Breaks: An Essay) offer …
That’s a Wrap!
That’s a wrap on our 29th Annual Virginia Festival of the Book! Thank you SO MUCH to our amazing community that showed up with excitement, curiosity, and an enormous love of reading. It was one for the books… pun intended.
